


Small Mercies

by icabyppup



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Identity Reveal, Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng Fluff, Adrien has one (1) singular brain cell, All facts about concussions have been violently yeeted out of the window, Alya Césaire Ships It, Alya has a point, Concussions, Cutesy, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, HIGHLY MEDICALLY INACCURATE, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Identity Reveal, Light crack, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Identity Reveal, Marinette can actually speak words in this one, Marinette isn't completely oblivious, Matchmaker Alya Césaire, Medical Inaccuracies, My First Work in This Fandom, POV Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Plagg Is So Done (Miraculous Ladybug), Some Humor, Tiki & Plagg ship it, Tiki is so done, and also, just warning y'all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:13:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23884312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icabyppup/pseuds/icabyppup
Summary: Marinette didn’t see her friend fall, but she sure as hell heard the thud that resonated loud through the park. She was first on the scene, dropping to her knees beside her friend.“Adrien! Are you okay?”Adrien blinked at her from his spot on the ground, making no move to get up.“Mari… nette?”Then, to her dismay, he started giggling....Alternatively:Adrien is concussed, Alya and Nino are busy and Marinette did not sign up for this.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Nino Lahiffe, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 21
Kudos: 287





	1. Head Injuries Are Fun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RookieReporterZ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RookieReporterZ/gifts).



> Happy Birthday my dear friend! I hope your day is wonderful and I love you very much! 💖💖💖💖💖💖
> 
> A massive thanks to CaraIsTrash for editing!

The park outside of Marinette’s place was simultaneously her saviour and her demise. On the one hand, Alya’s twin sisters would have plenty of room to run around, but on the other hand, more room meant more chance for mischief. It was lucky then, that Marinette was with Alya, Nino and Adrien. The more hands the better.

Alya and Marinette had been at a function earlier and ran into Adrien and Nino there. Turns out Adrien had snuck out of his house and the two were looking for places to hang out.

Sitting in the park near Marinette’s place, the teenagers were doing everything in their power to keep the girls entertained. Ella and Etta had a knack for attracting unspeakable mischief that the group had unanimously agreed they were not prepared to deal with. The energy invested in playing chasey was worth their collective while if it could save them from cleaning up some horrendous mess later by tiring the girls out _before_ they could get into trouble.

It was definitely too much to hope that they’d stay out of trouble. Adrien, in the course of his child entertainment duty, slipped and hit his head playing chasey. Marinette didn’t see him fall, but she sure as hell heard the _thud_ that resonated loud through the park, quiet now that the twins were startled still. She was first on the scene, dropping to her knees beside her friend.

“Adrien! Are you okay?”

Adrien blinked at her from his spot on the ground, making no move to get up.

“Mari… nette?”

Then, to her dismay, he started _giggling._

Marinette was pretty sure that life hated her at this point.

Adrien was very obviously concussed. _Of course._

And Adrien had snuck out – there was no way he could go home in this state. It would be obvious he’d left the mansion and he would be in so much trouble and-

And Alya had made it very clear to them an hour ago that she had to take the twins to the optometrist and being late was not an option. In that same conversation, Nino had seconded her need to leave on time. They both had to leave by 3pm.

Wouldn’t you know it? It was 2:45.

Okay, so maybe she’s just _cursed._

Nino and Alya raced up behind her, the former inspecting the damage and the latter presumably already having come to a similar conclusion as Marinette, judging by the way she was wincing. She grabbed the twin’s hands pulling them to her side and cautioning them to be quiet.

“Adrien, you good man?” Nino asked, setting himself on the ground to level his head next to the blond’s.

Adrien smiled vacantly, still giggling, and reached out to carefully place a fingertip on the other boy’s cheekbone. His gaze turned sharp, intensely focused on Nino.

“Your face is hard,” he said seriously.

Marinette put her head into her hands while Alya winced even harder.

“He’s definitely got a concussion, Nino,” she said.

Nino sighed, picking himself off of the ground, “That can’t be good.”

“Is Adrien okay?” Etta asked quietly, obviously concerned for her new playmate. Alya bent down to comfort the girls.

“Don’t worry, he’ll be just fine-” she shot a grin at Marinette that was an impossible mixture of apologetic and sly- “Marinette will take good care of him.”

She knew it was coming, but it didn’t make her any less panicked or irritated to hear it confirmed out loud. How could Alya still be teasing her right now?

She glared at her friend over her sister’s heads, and promised the girls that she’d take good care of Adrien.

“Alya!” she hissed. “What am I supposed to do with him? I can’t deal with Adrien on a normal day, let alone when he’s like this!” Marinette gestured towards the boy, who was wide-eyed and trying to pinch Nino’s hat as the other boy fussed over him.

“I’m really sorry girl, but you know I can’t help you with this one,” her expression seemed sincere, but it shifted into something mischievous far too easily to be genuine. “Besides, maybe you’ll be able to handle Adrien when he has the same capacity to make rational sense as you do.”

Marinette didn’t have the energy to be outraged. At least she was self-aware enough to recognise the truth in Alya’s words.

“And anyway, he might not even remember all of this, so don’t worry too much,” she paused, taking in her friend’s hunched shoulders and the way she was chewing her bottom lip, and her expression softened. “You can do it, I believe in you.”

And with those words of encouragement, Alya grabbed her sisters and swept away, dragging Nino in her wake and yelling something about not dying. Suddenly, Marinette was alone with Adrien.

Their eyes met, and Marinette found herself holding her breath for a split second before she tore her gaze away.

“Uh, so… My house?” Marinette stumbled to clarify her bitten off question. “What I mean is that I think we need to go somewhere, because obviously we can’t stay in this park forever, and I was just trying to say that I think it would be a good idea to go to my place because it’s close and also because if you go home like this your dad could find out you’ve been sneaking out and cut off your freedom forever! And then I’d never see you again! And I’d hate for that to happen, so, yeah… my place?” Marinette trailed off, feeling her cheeks heat in response to her ramblings. Why couldn’t she say a single word to Adrien without mortally embarrassing herself?

Adrien didn’t respond - well, he mumbled something about bugs, but Marinette wasn’t going to count that as a response – so Marinette scraped together all of her Ladybug courage, grabbed her crush by the wrist and firmly led him back to her house.

…

_Be thankful for small mercies_ , she reminded herself, as she unlocked the bakery door and guided Adrien up the stairs. Her parents were at a fête a few hours out of Paris selling pastries (the organiser was an old friend of her father’s and had begged them to go), and wouldn’t arrive back until late that evening.

Plenty of time for a concussion to wear off, right?

Here’s to hoping, because Adrien was _so_ obviously not in his right mind. Alya might have been onto something when she compared his communication skills to Marinette’s, because whatever conversation he was having did not seem to be the same one as her. Adrien definitely knew who she was, and seemed aware

(to an extent) that he was at her house. But he spent a lot of time giggling, punctuated by brief lapses into inordinately serious and then right back again. And the words coming out of his mouth?

Generous estimate: 65% of what he said made some sort of sense.

“Can you hear that?” Adrien asked her conversationally from his spot on the floor. After trying to set him up on the couch and the resulting close brushes with additional head injuries, Marinette and Tiki had decided that the closer he was to the ground, the better.

Thank god for her kwami. Marinette knew she was laughably unequipped to deal with this, and she was fairly certain that Tiki was the only reason they’d all survived this long. Thankfully she could afford to act a little more off than normal, considering that after the fact she could put any weird behaviour Adrien remembered down to his concussion. They still wanted to be careful though, so Tiki had taken up residence on Marinette’s shoulder – obscured by one of her pigtails.

“You mean can I hear the wind outside? Or the traffic?”

Adrien considered this response. “I think it’s cultists-”

“Of course it is.”

“-or ghosts.”

Marinette shot a despairing glance at her kwami, “Whatever you say, Adrien.”

The blond continued to mumble about the best strategy to avoid angering the cultist/ghosts (cultist ghosts?), and Marinette took the opportunity to turn and hide her kwami from view.

“Tiki! It’s been over an hour, and he still isn’t getting any better! What do I do?”

The kwami looked sympathetic, “I’m sorry Marinette, but there’s nothing you can do. You have to wait for it to pass.”

She couldn’t help but groan, “This is the worst!”

Tiki gave her a knowing smile, “I’m not so sure about that. You haven’t blushed in half an hour, and you’re talking like a normal human again. Maybe Alya was right, and this is helping you act less… crazy, around Adrien.”

The betrayal! Well okay, maybe her kwami had a point. But still. Marinette sighed, “You might be right, Tiki.”

The kwami smirked, but didn’t have time to respond before she was zipping back under Marinette’s hair, hiding as Adrien stumbled over.

“Adrien! You really shouldn’t be standing right now – your balance is still way off,” she led her friend back over to the couch, sitting down beside him on the floor. “You need to be careful. I don’t want you getting any other injuries!”

Green eyes met their crystal blue counterparts, and for a moment Adrien seemed present.

“You’re so good, Marinette. You’re always looking after us – all of us – even when we’ve done something stupid. Especially when we’ve done something stupid. And you’ve always got a plan and I trust you, I really do,” he seemed to look right through her. “Just like Ladybug! Always a step ahead… like with the crate. Looking out for me when I do stupid things..”

Marinette was shocked into stunned silence, but Adrien seemed to have resolved that train of thought and turned his attention to his hand, poking at his palm.

“You know your thumb is just a chicken drumstick. But flesh – your flesh,” his eyes widened every time he said ‘flesh’, and Marinette was shocked into silence again; this time, for a _very_ different reason.

In her best attempts to not think too hard about _that_ , her friend’s previous statement flew out of her head.

“Do you think we could summon Santa?”

In her defence, she was certainly being given a _lot_ to think about. And Tiki cackling behind her ear wasn’t exactly helping the matter.


	2. More Brain Cells Than Canon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Exactly what it says on the tin

Adrien wasn’t as with it as she would’ve liked when time came to drop him back, but he could no longer be mistaken for high _quite_ so easily (and by easily she meant from about 300 meters away) and Marinette had decided to be thankful for small mercies. Adrien would _definitely_ be missed if he was gone overnight, and Nino had texted her with a time he should be able to sneak back in.

Now if only they knew how he’d gotten out in the first place…

Nino said it was one of their friend’s only secrets, so he’d never pushed for information, figuring Adrien deserved all the privacy he could get while he was being closely monitored and simultaneously ignored by his father. (There’d been some comparisons drawn between Monsieur Agreste’s parenting tactics and _communist attack helicopters???_ , courtesy of Nino’s… encouragement, and Adrien’s loopiness.)

Yeah, this wasn’t going to be easy.

“Adrien,” Marinette asked gently, “would you be okay to tell me how you got out of your dad’s house, so we can get you back in?”

Her friend’s brow wrinkled, and he stared into her eyes for a long time – as though he was trying to decide if he could tell her a life-altering secret. Marinette understood why he might want to hold onto the few secrets he could keep, but really? This was a bit much. (And she was proud to say that despite the swarm of butterflies occupying the pit of her stomach as those pretty green eyes met hers, she did not blush, stutter or ramble uncontrollably!)

“Can you keep a secret?”

Marinette nodded intently, and Adrien leaned in close to breathe two words into the shell of her ear.

“I jump.”

He then immediately drew away, eyes wide and looking anxious, as if he’d told her some big secret.

Great. This concussion was _so_ helpful. Marinette pinched the bridge of her nose and _prayed_ that the universe would be merciful and help her get Adrien back inside before anyone noticed that he was missing.

“O-kay, you jump,” Marinette couldn’t hide the scepticism in her voice. “Think you can show me how you get back in?”

Adrien thought for a moment, but then shook his head firmly.

“Uh, okay… do you think you can get back in on your own?”

The nod came pretty quickly, and Marinette supposed that she didn’t have to like this plan, it just had to work. Otherwise they were both going to be _so_ dead.

“Well then… go ahead, Adrien. Sneak back into your house.”

“You have to stay here.”

“Huh?” Marinette replied eloquently.

“You have to stay here. You can’t follow me.” Adrien insisted.

Marinette’s shoulders tensed, and Tiki took that as her cue to gently pat her neck, in a signal that Marinette interpreted as _‘don’t worry, it’ll be fine, this isn’t a terrible idea that will go horribly wrong’_.

“Okay. Uh… can you let me know when you’re safe inside?”

Adrien nodded, and with a final command to stay put he vanished around the corner.

“Tiki, did I just make a horrible mistake?”

The kwami floated out from under her hair and into her line of sight, sporting an amused smile.

“It’ll be fine, Marinette. You’ve done a really good job of looking after Adrien today.”

The superhero smiled shyly, “Really? It felt like a bit of a disaster to me.”

“No, you did really well!”

“Thank you, Tiki. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

The kwami rolled her eyes at that, “Have some faith in yourself. You’re far more capable than you think you are.”

Marinette went to respond, but was cut off by the sound of distant yelling. Looking up, she could see Adrien’s face framed by his bedroom window. She waved up at him as Tiki ducked behind her.

“Well, I guess he made it.”

…

Marinette could feel Tiki’s gentle weight making a dent in the pillow next to her cheek. Despite the eventful day, she - and by extension, her kwami – had been lying awake for several hours. Her thoughts had been spiralling, and although that wasn’t an unusual occurrence, the directions they were taking this time took her breath away.

“Tiki… you know, today, the moment where Adrien was almost with it and compared me to Ladybug?”

“Yes?”

“Well, I’ve been thinking… He said that I was like Ladybug because I look after everyone and I have plans and he trusts me, right? And I guess that could make sense to a civilian – I look after Paris, they see me come out on top and execute plans so it makes sense for them to think of me as some sort of master planner and it makes sense for them to trust me, because of the saving Paris thing, but…”

“But?” Tiki asked from her spot on the pillow.

“But… I don’t know, something about it doesn’t feel right to me. When Adrien said those things, it didn’t sound distant in the way that people usually are when they talk about Ladybug. It sounded like he was talking about a close friend, or at least someone he sees a lot… more than Adrien sees Ladybug, anyway.”

Marinette paused, trying to gather her complicated tangle of thoughts into something approximating sentences.

“And… and there was something he said… something that didn’t sit right with me, I remember now. He said something that freaked me out, but then he moved right past it to the ‘chicken wing hand’ thing and _that_ shocked me into forgetting about my previous shock!”

The superhero was moving to sit up now, her mind perceptibly shifting…

She gasped.

“The crate. Tiki, what he said… he said something about Ladybug always being ahead – _like with the crate!”_

The kwami moved from her spot on the pillow to hover in the air, facing her holder. Her features were hard to make out in the dim light, but later Marinette would think back on it and, maybe by no more than her own imagination, remember the smallest of smiles gracing Tiki’s little face.

“And obviously there’s more than one crate in Paris and I don’t remember being with Adrien in any, but I do remember being with Chat Noir in one!”

She spared a moment to shudder – she had never even thought of drowning in whipped cream as a method of death before, but now it occupied a number of her not inconsiderable nightmares.

“When Mr. Damocles was akumatised and tried to drown us in a crate full of whipped cream! And I asked Chat to trust me and we both deactivated our Miraculouses and I had fakes in my bag!”

The insinuation behind all of this was starting to catch up to Marinette.

“That… Tiki, that fits his description perfectly, doesn’t it?”

She sucked in an unsteady breath, and whispered, “If Adrien was… if Adrien was Chat Noir, that would actually make a lot of sense.”

Her words seemed to narrow down the world to the inside of her dark bedroom, her kwami and her. The sounds of the Parisian streets outside faded to a dull hum, the traces of lights through the cracks around her window blurred into smudges of bright yellow and she couldn’t seem to find enough air to fill her lungs. Despite this, she continued; voice still hushed and words now coming slowly.

“He said that I save him when he does stupid things. I don’t remember doing that for Adrien, but Chat? All the time. The crate reference fits _perfectly._ And, if you think back… I’ve never actually seen Adrien and Chat at the same time… whenever an akuma has been after Adrien, Chat Noir is suddenly nowhere to be found. And times I’ve known Adrien should be around during or after an attack and I look for him, Chat Noir always seems to know that he’s safely off somewhere else. And…”

Marinette seemed to come to another realisation. Tiki watched on, halfway between being proud and exasperated that this took so long.

“His way out! He said he jumps, and remember how he was so serious, looking like he was telling me some big secret? It’s because he was… just not very well, because he was concussed. He must transform into Chat Noir to get out of his room, and literally jump out the window!”

Her kwami was definitely smirking now, and Marinette ground the heel of her palm into her forehead, wondering how she could be so stupid. She sheepishly turned to Tiki.

“I’m an idiot, aren’t I?

Yeah, okay, Tiki had every right to be smug.

“And you knew the whole time! Oh my God, I’m so sorry. That must’ve been infuriating!”

_Oh Marinette_ , the kwami thought, _if only you knew._

…

School that day would be a challenge. Marinette had decided when she came to her revelation last night that she _had_ to confront Adrien the next day (technically the same day, because it was very late or really early, whatever). Considering she hadn’t had much more sleep after that, she was steadfastly sticking to the plan. Plus, if she chickened out it was 100% going to end in disaster.

She had also had the confusing crisis of realising that Adrien – dreamboat Adrien, who she had a crush the size of Jupiter on – and _Chat Noir –_ the Chat Noir who was so irritating and reckless yet had a heart of gold but still, she never thought she’d ever like in a _million years –_ were the same person.

Basically, her brain collapsed.

With Tiki’s assistance, she had decided to shelve that issue for the meantime. Mainly because it was probably about 3am and she might literally shut down if she had to think about it.

So yeah, no thinking about it. But she did have to find a way to corner Adrien privately and confront him and hopefully not break his brain too.

In a move that was very unexpected, considering her usual luck, an opportunity arose without her needing to do anything. Mme Bustier sent her and Adrien to collect the class set of novels they were going to use in their lesson from the library. On the way, Marinette grabbed Adrien’s sleeve without warning and pulled them both into the locker room.

_Okay, now what?_

She examined her shoes, scuffing the toes against the locker room floor. Glancing up, she could see that Adrien was – unusually – similarly lost for words. He glanced down from the corner of the ceiling he was examining, and their eyes met.

Marinette fought the urge to hold her breath and instead pushed some words out.

“I- um, so… yesterday? Am I right?”

Not the most helpful words, but words still. She chalked that one up as a win.

Adrien ducked his head in an embarrassed nod.

“Yeah… I’m presuming that it wasn’t some sort of fever dream then?” When Marinette nodded her confirmation he winced.

“Well, thanks for looking after me. I really appreciate it, and from what I do remember, it can’t have been easy.”

“Yeah,” she whispered, “it wasn’t. But it’s okay – you’re worth it.”

Marinette could feel the blush creeping up her cheeks. She hadn’t meant to say that, but couldn’t deny the truth in her words.

It would be nice if they didn’t slip out without her permission, but still.

“I, uh- that actually wasn’t what I wanted to talk to you about, though.”

She paused, trying to find a way to get the words out and gave up.

“Are you… you’re Chat Noir?”

The boy across from her blinked, and she twisted her fingers nervously as his expression became indecipherable. Then, in an instant it filled with wonder and aweing understanding.

“You’re Ladybug,” he breathed, and Marinette knew she was right as she watched the pieces flit across his face, assembling in front of her eyes.

“You too?” she asked quietly, but no-one responded because suddenly Adrien was kissing her, gently pressing their lips together and her brain whited out.

In the far-off distance, she vaguely registered the sound of voices, but at the moment, she couldn’t care less.

“Finally!” Plagg exclaimed, flying out of hiding. Tiki met him halfway and they hovered off to the side as their holders kissed, keeping watch.

The destructive kwami turned to his counterpart.

“Do you think you can convince Ladybug that this is a good thing? I’m _so_ sick of his pining. It makes me nauseous.”

Tiki smiled, sharp and gentle.

“I don’t think it’s going to be an issue after this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Birthday RookieReporterZ! Sending a million hugs your way!!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! This is my first work for the Miraculous fandom, so I'd really appreciate a comment. Let me know how I did!


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